Today is National Fish and Chips Day. So in honour of this event, here’s a short post about fish and chips…Asian style! I learned two valuable lessons in the cooking of this dish. One- Panko breadcrumbs are the business and make any recipe utterly crispy and delicious. The second valuable lesson was that umeboshi plums really are an acquired taste and though I loved them, my other half is still gagging at the memory of them. I wanted to try something different and when I saw these weird Japanese plums on a TV food programme, I had to have them.
So, off we trotted to the Asian supermarket, where we walked around in baffled wonder and awe for a few minutes before locating the mysterious umeboshi plums. I decided to cook a Japanese tomato salsa with these bitter sweet plums and chose to serve it with some deep fried hake and crispy potato wedges. I made this dish and loved it, but the other half enjoyed the fish and chips and left the salsa sitting sadly on the side of his plate. So you can be brave and make the Japanese salsa or you can just go with the delicious panko fried fish and crispy wedges.
Here’s how
– 2 medium fillets of hake
– salt and freshly ground black pepper
– 100g panko breadcrumbs
– 50g plain flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
– 2 eggs lightly beaten
– 2 tbsp olive oil
Japanese salsa
– 1 long red chilli, finely chopped
– ½ bunch coriander, roughly chopped
– 4 umeboshi (available from Asian supermrket), roughly chopped
– 1 lemon, zest only
– 1 tsp soy sauce
– 2 tbsp mirin
– 60ml olive oil
– 1 small punnet of slow roasted tomatoes
Potato Wedges
– 2 large washed baking potatoes
– 3 tbsp olive oil
– Freshly ground sea salt
– Sprinkle of chilli powder
– Some crushed black pepper and Maldon sea salt
For the salsa , mix all the chopped ingredients together to form a course paste. Then add the chopped roasted tomatoes.
Meanwhile wash and dry the hake. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place the breadcrumbs on one large plate. On another large plate place the beaten egg. On another large plate place the flour. Dredge the fish in the flour, then dip into the beaten egg mixture and roll in the breadcrumbs. Set aside on a clean plate and chill for a few minutes. Once chilled, deep fry the fish in some vegetable oil. I don’t generally deep fry and don’t own a deep fat fryer. However on the occasions that I do deep fry, I usually use my wok. Fry the fish until golden brown and cooked in the centre. Serve the potato wedges with the fish and salsa on the side with a slice of lime!
